Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-38059

High

Published: 09 July 2024

Published
09 July 2024
Modified
21 November 2024
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score v3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0896 92.8th percentile
Risk Priority 21 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2024-38059 is a high-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Microsoft Windows 10 21H2. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, ranked in the top 7.2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Deeper analysis

CVE-2024-38059 is a Win32k Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability in the Windows kernel-mode driver responsible for the graphical subsystem. It is tracked under CWE-416 (use-after-free) and received a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8 reflecting local attack vector, low complexity, and low-privileged access requirements that nonetheless result in high impact to confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

A local attacker who already possesses a low-privileged account on an affected Windows system can exploit the flaw without user interaction to escalate privileges to SYSTEM level, thereby obtaining full control of the host.

Microsoft’s Security Response Center advisory at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2024-38059 supplies the official patch details and remediation guidance. The associated EPSS score has remained modest, with a current value of 0.0896 and a peak of 0.0967.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

Win32k Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

CWE(s)

Related Threats

No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.

Affected Assets

microsoft
windows 10 21h2
≤ 10.0.19044.4651
microsoft
windows 10 22h2
≤ 10.0.19045.4651
microsoft
windows 11 21h2
≤ 10.0.22000.3079
microsoft
windows 11 22h2
≤ 10.0.22621.3880
microsoft
windows 11 23h2
≤ 10.0.22631.3880
microsoft
windows server 2022
≤ 10.0.20348.2582
microsoft
windows server 2022 23h2
≤ 10.0.25398.1009

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-416

Use-after-free exploits that achieve arbitrary code execution are blocked or significantly hardened by non-executable pages and ASLR.

References